Am hoping to start a lively discussion on your culling ideology.
I have been thinking about it because in a few weeks there is a koi fall harvest in my local area at koi farm, so I was hoping to aquire a few new fish. Technically, I have the correct number of fish in my pond and the only way I can get new ones is to remove some of the current ones I no longer want.
I have 6 or 7 comets that I inherited with the pond when I bought the house that have grown quite large, and these are the first on my hit list to go. As I gazed into the pond last night, I started looking at my koi and started ranking them in terms of my least favorite and ones that I could part with.
For example:
Barack: He's lively mutt and about 11 inches. Unfortunately, he's nearly all black on top, so he's a bit hard to see in the pond and doesn't really add any splash of color.
Sanke Tancho: Also around 11 inches. When he went into the pond, he had this wonderful red tancho spot on the top of his head that unfortunately has gone away. That's left him looking like a bland white fish with some black speckles and a pinkish head. Dull.
Showa: I have three Showa. Big Ben is my favorite and largest fish. He'll stay with me forever. I have his son, who is only 7 inches right now, but he is even more brilliantly colored than his dad. Can't wait to see him grow up. But then I've got this other brother who has great body color. but his face is largely white.
Kohaku: 10". He's just a lot of boring orange. Don't care for his pattern.
Sunnyside: I have two Kariwamono yellow koi (kigoi). One is smaller and has developed an interesting bright red spot on his head this year, so I named him Ghandi. Sunnyside is larger at about 10" and he is a lovely shade of yellow, but I already have Ghandi who is yellow...so I don't really need two yellows.
There's easily 6 koi that I can cull from the bottom of my list to make room for prettier fish. There's nothing wrong with these 6 at all--they are healthy, happy fish. I don't even know who the heck I'm going to give these fellows to when it comes time to move them out of my pond either. I guess I'll Craigslist 'em..I don't want money, but just to find them good homes. Clearly, I bought these fish at the time because I liked the way they looked for one reason or another. And I never bought them with the intention of later getting rid of them. In fact, this will be the first time I'd be removing fish from my pond for this reason.
But, I can't just keep cramming new fish in without getting rid of some of the existing ones--so I'm at an interesting point with my pond in that I've got to make some decisions. And that fall harvest is in two weeks!
So, I was wondering what you folks think about culling for looks? (Sheesh that sounds terrible! LOL!). I guess as my eye has changed for what I think is a good looking koi, some of my herd no longer fits that viewpoint. What fish in your pond would you get rid of if you could replace it with a newcomer and why?
I have been thinking about it because in a few weeks there is a koi fall harvest in my local area at koi farm, so I was hoping to aquire a few new fish. Technically, I have the correct number of fish in my pond and the only way I can get new ones is to remove some of the current ones I no longer want.
I have 6 or 7 comets that I inherited with the pond when I bought the house that have grown quite large, and these are the first on my hit list to go. As I gazed into the pond last night, I started looking at my koi and started ranking them in terms of my least favorite and ones that I could part with.
For example:
Barack: He's lively mutt and about 11 inches. Unfortunately, he's nearly all black on top, so he's a bit hard to see in the pond and doesn't really add any splash of color.
Sanke Tancho: Also around 11 inches. When he went into the pond, he had this wonderful red tancho spot on the top of his head that unfortunately has gone away. That's left him looking like a bland white fish with some black speckles and a pinkish head. Dull.
Showa: I have three Showa. Big Ben is my favorite and largest fish. He'll stay with me forever. I have his son, who is only 7 inches right now, but he is even more brilliantly colored than his dad. Can't wait to see him grow up. But then I've got this other brother who has great body color. but his face is largely white.
Kohaku: 10". He's just a lot of boring orange. Don't care for his pattern.
Sunnyside: I have two Kariwamono yellow koi (kigoi). One is smaller and has developed an interesting bright red spot on his head this year, so I named him Ghandi. Sunnyside is larger at about 10" and he is a lovely shade of yellow, but I already have Ghandi who is yellow...so I don't really need two yellows.
There's easily 6 koi that I can cull from the bottom of my list to make room for prettier fish. There's nothing wrong with these 6 at all--they are healthy, happy fish. I don't even know who the heck I'm going to give these fellows to when it comes time to move them out of my pond either. I guess I'll Craigslist 'em..I don't want money, but just to find them good homes. Clearly, I bought these fish at the time because I liked the way they looked for one reason or another. And I never bought them with the intention of later getting rid of them. In fact, this will be the first time I'd be removing fish from my pond for this reason.
But, I can't just keep cramming new fish in without getting rid of some of the existing ones--so I'm at an interesting point with my pond in that I've got to make some decisions. And that fall harvest is in two weeks!
So, I was wondering what you folks think about culling for looks? (Sheesh that sounds terrible! LOL!). I guess as my eye has changed for what I think is a good looking koi, some of my herd no longer fits that viewpoint. What fish in your pond would you get rid of if you could replace it with a newcomer and why?
